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Book Review: Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore

Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore

Tor.com, 2019

ISBN-13: 978-1250314901

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Just when you thought Lovecraftian horror couldn’t get any weirder, Scotto Moore tosses this tongue-in-cheek tale of a band that is destined to bring out the end of the world into the ring. It’s a fun read that can and will be easily read in one sitting, and that’s sure to leave the reader with a smile.

The story begins when a music blogger happens upon a new group named  Beautiful Remorse on the Bandcamp website (akin to Soundcloud) with the name Beautiful Remorse. Of course, the infectious music soon causes quite a stir in the industry. The first song causes strange reactions in those who listen to it, and the narrator of the novella decides he needs to meet the singer of the band, Airee McPherson.

When he lands the interview, he learns that Airee and her enigmatic band have a plan for him: she informs him that she’s not from this dimension,  and will not be satisfied until she brings forth the end of the world as we know it.

Every day, Beautiful Remorse releases a new song that tears into the reality he knows, and something changes that just might signal the apocalypse. Airee plays the blogger like a finely-tuned instrument. He is a witness, and yet, can do nothing to stop it.

What ensues is pure entertainment, sheer fun in grandiose storytelling that just might cause old Howard Phillips to rock a bit in his grave. Reminiscent of Skipp and Spector’s The Scream, Moore’s book eschews the sheer horror of that classic for something much lighter (if you consider summoning forth old gods out of another dimension light). Think of  Lovecraft crossed with Jeff Strand and one might get the proper feel for this book. Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You is a fun read, recommended for a dark and stormy night.

 

Reviewed by David Simms

Posted on April 9, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Bitter Suites by Angela Yuriko Smith

Bitter Suites by Angela Yuriko Smith

Self-published, 2018

ISBN-13: 978-1721546800

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

“Bitter Suites is supposed to entrich your life, not sap it.”  That’s what the desk clerk, and owner, of  Bitter Suites, a hotel specializing in “renewable death experiences” tells a client. It certainly is a popular enough place, but having read Angela Yuriko Smith’s novella, I can’t say that the owner accomplishes her goal. It certainly changes lives, but I don’t think I would say that’s necessarily for the better.

Bitter Suites consists of a number of stories about customers of the business, some isolated and some linked. It reminded me a bit of Neal Shusterman’s Scythe, in that technology is used to bring back the dead in that book as well, but in Bitter Suites,  this is an unusual technology available only to the very privileged, and different people have different reasons for booking a room. Early stories include a teen excited to experience his first “renewable death”, a romantic couple who choose a “Romeo and Juliet” experience that has unexpected consequences (except for the reader), a driver’s ed class that has a disturbing ending, and twins whose parents are hoping the experience brings them together (also not an especially surprising ending for the reader) Other stories are linked together as a “death junkie” finds himself banned from the hotel.

The concept is interesting, and the idea of presenting individual choices and reactions to death knowing that it will be a “renewable death” was original. However, I wish the linked stories had told us a bit more about the owner, Azreal (although the author includes a story at the end that she says will explain the origins of the Bitter Suites in a forthcoming volume). I also feel that, while this would succeed as a novella had the author left this as a standalone book, her explanation that there will be a forthcoming volume that completes the story makes what would have seemed like a finished product seem only partially complete, and somewhat of a disappointment. Rather than presenting it as one of two volumes, she would be better off including a longer collection of stories in a single volume, such as presented in the collection Machine of Death. Still, I very much enjoyed the concept. I have not read any other work by Angela Yuriko Smith to date, but I will certainly be on the lookout for volume two of Bitter Suites. 

 

Contains: Violence, gore, graphic depictions of murder and suicide.

Editor’s note: Bitter Suites is on the final ballot for the 2018 Stoker Awards in the category of Superior Achievement in Long Fiction.

Posted on April 9, 2019 by , Reply

Book Review: Screechers by Kevin J. Kennedy and Christina Bergling

Screechers by Kevin J. Kennedy and Christina Bergling

Publisher: Independently published

ISBN-13: 978-1798052655

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Screechers by Kevin Kennedy and Christina Bergling is a novella about a devastated, post-apocalyptic earth that is populated by a few bands of humans and monstrous hybrids. The time, the location, and the cause of the earthshattering catastrophe are unstated. Several mysteries egg the reader on.  What do the screechers look like? The authors only gradually describe them as giant-sized humanoids with translucent skin, rippling muscles, scaled backs, talons and fanged mouths.

Whatever caused the apocalypse accelerated mutations and produced hybrids. Screechers might have arisen from humans and another species, perhaps avian. They hatch from eggs, and females don’t leave the nest to hunt. Other monsters in this post-apocalyptic scenrio include pack-hunting apo-wolves with an elephant-sized alpha female, and crabs with scorpion tails, spewing venom. Each monster is vying to be the top apex predator. Way down on the list are the human survivors, who hunt small prey in ruins of a city.

A lightning storm destroys the screechers’ nest, forcing a lone surviving adult male and an infant to seek food far afield. The adult becomes addicted to a strange plant– another mystery. Then the humans’ community is burned out, and the three survivors flee the city. The humans and monsters meet in an epic free-for-all battle. Each species relies on its particular deadly gifts. Will a possible kindred between screechers and humans come into play?

The point of view of each chapter alternates between screechers, humans and apo-wolves. Adults and teenagers will enjoy this fast-paced novella: I only wished that it were longer, and answered more of the mysteries. Recommended.

Contains: graphic violence, mild profanity

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

Posted on March 24, 2019 by , Reply
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